HOW DOUGLAS ADAMS WROTE THE MOST POPULAR DOCTOR WHO STORY IN A WEEKEND. (and other things to shame all other writers)
If you’re not a Doctor Who fan, the chances are you’ll have met one at a party. They’ll have backed you into a corner, saying “No, but seriously, have you seen City Of Death? It’s really, really good. I mean, it’s by Douglas Adams and it’s set in Paris and it has Tom Baker in it and…”
At that point you’ll either be excusing yourself to lunge at the guacamole, or you’ll be hooked. And City Of Death is well worth your time. True Doctor Who fans (especially the ones blocking your path to the ham and pineapple pizza) will perhaps opine that it’s not the best Doctor Who story ever, but it’s certainly the most popular. On its original broadcast it got the show’s highest audiences ever – thanks in part to ITV being on strike, but we prefer to ignore that and concentrate on how brilliant it is.
City Of Death is a breezy story about time travel, art theft and a villainous Parisian Countess. It’s also terribly, terribly annoying – because Douglas Adams wrote it in a weekend. You look at the hundreds of other Doctor Who stories out there – some dogged by the elaborate excuses of late authors, some rewritten on the studio floor, and some painstakingly developed over the course of years – and then there’s City Of Death. When the original script fell through, Adams was grabbed by the show’s producer and stuck behind a typewriter until it was done.
Could such a thing be done now? 1979 was such a primitive time for the internet that it had never even got cross about Katie Hopkins (imagine that). Without the distraction of emails, texts, and wikipediaing Paris’s geography, Adams was forced to rely on his wits and a lot of coffee. And he got through it, and produced something brilliant – a story that’s genuinely funny, and a fiendishly complicated time travel plot that just works.
That’s the real legacy of City Of Death – one that haunts the rest of us. Anyone who’s ever used the “#amwriting” hashtag; Anyone who’s ever handed in a first draft and said “It’s rough but we’ll get it right in a few goes”. Douglas Adams wrote City Of Death in a weekend, and they pretty much started filming that first draft on Monday. It’s a fact which haunts everyone.
In fact, next time a writer friend of yours Facebooks to say “Managed 2,000 words today and nearly reached the summit! #Phew #SmashedIt”, why not just reply “Douglas Adams wrote City Of Death in a weekend”? I’m sure they’ll thank you.
City Of Death – Douglas Adams & James Goss – BBC Books
The Doctor takes Romana for a holiday in Paris – a city which, like a fine wine, has a bouquet all its own. Especially if you visit during one of the vintage years. But the TARDIS takes them to 1979, a table-wine year, a year whose vintage is soured by cracks – not in their wine glasses but in the very fabric of time itself.
Soon the Time Lords are embroiled in an audacious alien scheme which encompasses home-made time machines, the theft of the Mona Lisa, the resurrection of the much-feared Jagaroth race, and the beginning (and quite possibly the end) of all life on Earth.
Aided by British private detective Duggan, whose speciality is thumping people, the Doctor and Romana must thwart the machinations of the suave, mysterious Count Scarlioni – all twelve of him – if the human race has any chance of survival.
But then, the Doctor’s holidays tend to turn out a bit like this.
City of Death is published by BBC Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here.
James Goss is the author of two Doctor who novels: The Blood Cell and Dead of Winter, as well as Summer Falls (on behalf of Any Pond). He is also the co-author, with Steve Tribe of The Doctor: His Lives and Times, The Dalek Handbook and Doctor Who; A History of the Universe in 100 Objects. While at the BBC James produced an adaptation of Shada, an unfinished Douglas Adams Doctor Who story, and Dirk is his award-winning stage adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His Doctor Who audiobook Dead Air won Best Audiobook 2010 and his books Dead of Winter and First Born were nominated for the 2012 British Fantasy Society Awards. His new book, Haterz, is out now.
Today I am delighted to welcome James Goss who has kindly taken time to answer a few of my questions about his new novel, Haterz.
James also has a long-standing association with the world of Doctor Who – as a lifelong fan of that particular show I sneaked in a few questions about everyone’s favourite Timelord.
Haterz is a dark comic tale which sees the central character killing off people who annoy him when he is online – I opened with the obvious question…
Would it be a fair for Haterz readers to assume that James Goss has become a little bit irritated by some elements of social media?
I’m a freelancer who works from home, so I’m obviously addicted to social media. It’s the ultimate work avoidance tool. If people aren’t uploading pictures of their breakfasts or a holiday sunset then I want to know what’s wrong with the world. That said, there are some elements of it that bring out the worst in people. For instance, a friend of mine is wonderful, charming, self-deprecating company in real life, but unbearable on Facebook. I would hide them, but I’m enjoying the ride. And that makes me a terrible person.
In Haterz when we meet Dave, he is just about to kill his best friend’s girlfriend because he finds her annoying on Facebook. Have you had to reassure your friends that they are not in any way featured in Haterz?
On the contrary, actually. In the couple of cases where I’ve used people I know, I’ve emailed them to ask how I would kill them. And they’ve been very creative.
Despite the fact he is killing people in nasty ways I found the character of Dave to be quite a likeable fellow. Do you think you will split the crowd on this one (with some readers condoning his actions and others willing him to succeed)? Or do intend for us all to empathize with Dave?
It’s terribly fashionable to issue death threats on Twitter. I just wondered who would be the kind of person who actually carried them out – and Dave’s not some ranting people-hating moron. He’s not a slick, smooth American psychopath – he’s a terribly British bumbler. Poor old Dave just wants everyone to be nice to each other. And is going to carry on killing until they are. I think, once you can get past that contradiction then he’s perfectly pleasant company. You could go out for a drink with him. So long as you don’t post too many pictures of your cocktail.
I am keen to avoid plot spoilers, however, I did enjoy some of the people and groups that Dave targeted his attentions towards. When you were planning out Haterz did you have a ‘hit-list’ of groups you specifically wanted to target?
Absolutely. All the groups, types and institutions were planned in advance. I toned a few of them down. Oddly, in the nearly two years between planning and publication, none of the groups have changed that much. Amazingly, woman-hating video gamers have got even nastier. Well done on that one, humanity.
As we all seem to be becoming increasingly fixated on social media do you think we have reached a point where more serious repercussions are needed to curb the worst instances of online behaviour?
It’s all such a muddle, like humanity is trying to work out where we go next. We may look back on GamerGate as the first online world war – not between countries but between violently passionate interest groups. A glance at Twitter tells you the consensus is “We want freedom of speech. Just not for them, them, and you can shut up”. We live in a world that is almost inexplicable to people from a decade ago, when we were all charmed by “Eric Emotes An Emotion”. I don’t know how long it will be before we reach Peak Oversharing. Possibly when all those babies whose every bowel-movement has been reported on become old enough to have Facebook accounts, log on and go “oh dear god.”
We live in a world where what’s really frightening is not that the terrorists are on social media, but how they’re making the same stupid mistakes the rest of us do.
Having now laid out our worst online offences have you had to modify your own online behaviour?
I think we’re all guilty of some pretty awful offences. Too many cat pictures. Enigmatic tweeting about how marvellous your life is. The terrible thing about being an author online is that there’s this pressure to constantly bang on about stuff you’ve written. No-one was gladder than me to find out from a social media expert that constantly being “Brand You” is really off-putting. I find the whole thing deeply embarrassing. I couldn’t convincingly sell you a new pair of socks, let alone a book, so I’m deeply relieved that the publicity team behind Haterz are really good. Because, no matter how proud I am of something I’ve worked on, I can’t enthuse about it on social media without sounding like a vicar trying to sound cool.
Switching track slightly, I also wanted to ask about your ongoing involvement with the world of Doctor Who. I have been a fan of the show since childhood and I am delighted to see it flourishing. You seem to have been involved with the programme for several years in a number of different roles, what have been the stand-out moments for you?
I still can’t believe that Doctor Who is back and so loved. When I first ran the BBC’s website (during the end of the show’s wilderness years and the first two series of the triumphant relaunch), the disinterest the BBC felt towards Doctor Who was pretty bad. Ever year the site’s budget got cut and the online audience only grew larger. It was a strange time – trying to do so much with such tiny resources against such vast corporate indifference. I’ll never forget a meeting with my head of department where she sighed and said “Well, Doctor Who, there’s only about another 18 months in it.” Then Russell brought it back and the whole thing snowballed. It was truly amazing to be involved in that. But also rather unbelievable. Genuinely. But suddenly the BBC fell head over heels in love with Doctor Who again. And rightly so.
Oh yes. And getting to stand on the TARDIS set and realising that a large amount of it was from IKEA. Which instantly validated most of my home furnishing choices.
The Blood Cell
Last year you wrote the Doctor Who novel The Blood Cell (which I reviewed and enjoyed immensely). It was one of the first novels published which featured Peter Capaldi’s Doctor.I believe that you had to write the story before the first Capaldi episode, Deep Breath, was broadcast – how do you write for such an iconic character when you do not know how he will appear on screen?
Very carefully. We were lucky in that we had access to the early scripts and they were phenomenally clear about what a different character this Doctor was going to be. I cheated and wrote my book from the villain’s point-of-view, so if I had got it wrong, I could just claim the narrator was lying.
My extensive research (Wikipedia) reveals that you and I were born in the same year. I have been a Doctor Who fan for as long as I can remember I do recall seeing seeing K-9 yet my earliest clear memory of the show is of the Melkur from Keeper of Traken. Can you pin down your first Who memory?
Curiously enough, City Of Death. There didn’t seem to be anything else on when I was a child. I was so lucky. I don’t think I really got what the show was, though. I remember watching an episode that, amazingly, wasn’t City Of Death. Doctor Who climbed up a tower, fell off, and turned into the young vet from All Creatures Great And Small. I was very confused.
You have worked with Big Finish and produced a number of audio plays. Do you prefer the solitude and personal achievement of writing or is the collaboration and assembling the cast and crew to make an audio drama a bigger challenge?
I love getting off the sofa and meeting people. I’m very bad at it these days, but I try my best. It’s really lovely that Big Finish have let me do some really wonderful projects. They’re a really great company to work for. Some of the most surprising emails of my life have come from them. Would I like to write a musical? Would I like to write for Servalan? Can you produce an audio series with an actress you helplessly admire?
Some unexpected items included in the 100 objects.
One of your other projects was the non fiction Doctor Who book A History of the Universe in 100 Objects. I was constantly amused by the items you singled out for discussion but it all seemed to work perfectly – was there a method to the selection process or did you and (co-author) Steve Tribe just have fun picking unusual items?
We went to the pub. I hate it when people use that as an answer. It makes it sound so lazy. But my local does really nice coffee (for me) and very nice draught beer (for Steve), and then we sat down and we did that thing that Doctor Who fans love to do. We drew up a list.
Some things were written but didn’t make the final cut. There was a whole section on Dalek Plans, written by Penny, their long-suffering Project Manager. God, I loved that. Probably best it was left out, but occasionally, on nights out, Chris Allen, the current Doctor Who website editor, will perform bits of it aloud. It mostly comes down to Penny saying “And you haven’t left in a big red destruct button this time have you?” and the Dalek Supreme going “Er…”. I AM LAUGHING NOW. WHY ARE YOU NOT LAUGHING?
On a final note, are you able to share what you will be working on next?
I’m making the revisions to the novelisation of Douglas Adams’s City Of Death, which is a very odd, wonderful project to have done. Yes, in an ideal world Douglas himself would have written it. Or Gareth Roberts, but he got abducted to write A Top Secret Television Project, so it landed with me. I live in a world where, just this once, I’m third choice for something after Douglas Adams. That’s not a bad place to be.
Mind you, I’ve spent the last few months trying not to be run over by a bus (probably driven by whoever offed Danny Pink). Funnily enough, on the day before I finished the first draft, I nearly choked to death on a new potato. I was so horrifically aware of the irony I was giggling at the same time I was choking. Yes. I very nearly died laughing.
Category: From The Bookshelf |
Comments Off on Guest Interview – James Goss (Haterz)
A blackly comic crime novel about a one-man crusade to rid the internet of haters, flamers, trolls and vaguebookers… even if he has to kill to do it.
Is there someone online who really annoys you? Who is always bragging, posting too many pictures and just doesn’t get jokes? Look at your Twitter feed, don’t you get cross at the endless rage, bigotry and the pleading for celebrity retweets? Meet Dave. He decides that unfollowing someone just isn’t enough. He’s determined to make the internet a nicer place, and he won’t stop at murder in order to achieve it. When he kills his best friend’s girlfriend, he isn’t planning on changing the world. She was just really annoying on Facebook. But soon Dave realises he’s being manipulated. A conspiracy are using him to gain control of something dark forming at the heart of the world wide web…
My thanks to Solaris and Netgalley for my review copy
James Goss is a clever man. He has taken all the annoying things that we see each day on the internet and drawn them together into a single story that is not remotely annoying. How does a collection of irritations not annoy the reader? Mainly by following a likeable lead character who kills the annoying people who abuse Social Media. And (here is the clever bit) he makes it seem like it is a perfectly reasonable course of action to undertake. Genius!
In Haterz we follow Dave. He is in a pub one evening when he gets cornered by Danielle, she is his best friend’s girlfriend. We learn that Dave his not Danielle’s greatest fan and he finds her inane Facebook updates a source of constant irritation. In short, Dave finds Danielle so irritating (both in person and online) that he decides to kill her – and he does. In the very first Chapter!
Reaching home, safe in the knowledge that Danielle’s death will be considered a tragic accident, Dave is horrified to receive an email from an unknown sender which reads: “We know what you’ve done. Killer”.
From this point on Dave is no longer master of his own destiny. He will be contacted by email and made aware of individuals who are exhibiting unacceptable online behaviour. Dave then has to address these problematic individuals and make them change their way – or silence them permanently. How he tackles each of these problems is clever, entertaining (for readers) and should probably leave any friends of James Goss slightly concerned as to how he may perceive their online behaviour.
Through the story Dave takes on the likes of Twitter trolls, media columnists, banks and high interest loan companies. He believes his actions are for the greater good and sometimes it is hard to disagree. I doubt that any reader will make it through the book without recognising some form of online interaction that they have previously encountered and found to be highly objectionable or that they have themselves been guilty of (in which case…BE AFRAID).
I cannot give away too many details as to why I enjoyed Haterz so much as this would risk robbing you of the delight of finding the great plot twists for yourself – spoilers and all that. What I can share is that this is a sharply written novel with a clever premise. It captures perfectly the failings of Social Media and pokes fun at the worst offenders. Once I started reading I wanted to keep going – the pacing was perfect, the victims were plentiful and there were laughs to be had along the way.
There are characters in the book which you will mentally picture as real life people – either because you have a Facebook friend that exhibits similar traits to the poor Danielle or because you think that the columnist is basically <REDACTED> under a different name and you want to see if something nasty will happen.
Haterz is one of the rarer gems of crime fiction – a novel that delivers a good ‘murder’ story yet also keeps the humour front and foremost which helped to make it such good fun to read. Consider The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – a science fiction story but so deeply interlaced with the humour of Douglas Adams that it is frequently considered a comedy book rather than sci-fi. Goss does the same in Haterz: there are some dark and graphic scenes yet the tone is softened with a joke or wry observation and the perception of the whole book changes. Anyone that uses the internet should read this book. If a review score helps you to decide then I hope that 5 out of 5 should be persuasive.
Haterz is published on March 12th by Solaris Books.
James Goss is on Twitter: @gossjam
I have previously reviewed Doctor Who: The Blood Cell which was also written by James Goss. This book was one of the first published to feature Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor. Search for The Blood Cell at www.grabthisbook.net
City Of Death is a breezy story about time travel, art theft and a villainous Parisian Countess. It’s also terribly, terribly annoying – because Douglas Adams wrote it in a weekend. You look at the hundreds of other Doctor Who stories out there – some dogged by the elaborate excuses of late authors, some rewritten on the studio floor, and some painstakingly developed over the course of years – and then there’s City Of Death. When the original script fell through, Adams was grabbed by the show’s producer and stuck behind a typewriter until it was done.
James Goss is the author of two Doctor who novels: The Blood Cell and Dead of Winter, as well as Summer Falls (on behalf of Any Pond). He is also the co-author, with Steve Tribe of The Doctor: His Lives and Times, The Dalek Handbook and Doctor Who; A History of the Universe in 100 Objects. While at the BBC James produced an adaptation of Shada, an unfinished Douglas Adams Doctor Who story, and Dirk is his award-winning stage adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His Doctor Who audiobook Dead Air won Best Audiobook 2010 and his books Dead of Winter and First Born were nominated for the 2012 British Fantasy Society Awards. His new book, Haterz, is out now.
